Maybe that little turd will be forced to defend his hypocritical stance in a debate with an eventual challenger, AOM! He'll stumble around and never really answer the question, but maybe enough of those who voted for him the first time around will decide that even their low standards are not as low as his...

I did not watch the CNN-Tea Party debate last night, but Howard Fineman seems to think that the Repub candidates are aiming to dismantle the federal government....

WASHINGTON -- Two things happened in Monday night's CNN-Tea Party debate. The dynamics of the Republican race became clear: it's Rick Perry against the field. And the contest's central theme became just as clear: let's dismantle as much as we can of the federal government's role.

We are in the midst of a great national unraveling, a slow-motion secession fostered by fear, anger, $15 trillion in debt and the ineffectual yet conceptually ambitious presidency of Barack Obama.

The GOP grassroots response -- the Tea Party response -- is, however unrealistic and impractical, to try to dismember the federal government except when its largesse was created by Republicans or when it is failing to fully protect the borders.

Questioned repeatedly about the wisdom of their policies, the three current and former governors on the stage -- Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman -- claimed the mantle of state's rights to defend their actions. Perry defended his support for in-state tuition for undocumented college students in Texas; Huntsman defended his support for driver's licenses for illegals in Utah; and Romney defended his health care plan in Massachusetts.

MORE OF THE TEA PARTY/REPUB NONSENSE AT THE LINK

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Maybe that little turd will be forced to defend his hypocritical stance in a debate with an eventual challenger, AOM! He'll stumble around and never really answer the question, but maybe enough of those who voted for him the first time around will decide that even their low standards are not as low as his...

I did not watch the CNN-Tea Party debate last night, but Howard Fineman seems to think that the Repub candidates are aiming to dismantle the federal government...

I didn't watch either, Catherine; thanks for the heads up.

Perry WILL NOT be president; he likely won't even be the GOP nominee. He's mean, obnoxious, truculent and dumber than a dust bunny. He's going to have to give some real answers and quit playing hide-and-seek sometime real soon now.

As far as dismantling the government, those rightwing blighters will just have to keep dreaming...

After months of dismissing allegations that he owed his ex-wife more than $100,000 in back child support, U.S. Rep. Joe Walsh was ordered Wednesday to provide the court with proof that he isn't a deadbeat dad.

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Cook County Circuit Judge Raul Vega expressed frustration when the Illinois Republican and Tea Party favorite did not appear in court along with his ex-wife, Laura Walsh.

From the Sun-Times:

Walsh’s new attorney, Janet Boyle, asked Vega “for what purpose” he wanted the congressman in court.

Vega gave her a puzzled look.

To which Boyle responded: “Mr. Walsh is a U.S. congressman.”

“Well, he’s no different than anyone else,” the judge said.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

The Tea Party audience cheered Ron Paul’s suggestion that freedom means letting an uninsured man die. Another audience cheered the 234 executions Gov. Rick Perry has presided over. Michele Bachmann calls the EPA a “job-killing” agency. Clean water and air? Who needs it? If this movement wins only 4 Senate seats, they could have total control of Congress.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Right-wing audiences at recent Republican presidential debates have obscenely cheered capital punishment and the awful idea that grievously ill patients without private insurance should be allowed to die rather than receive taxpayer funding for medical assistance.

Imagine the glee they must have exhibited upon hearing of Troy Davis's unconscionable execution!

That such a horrendous outlook emanates from self-described Christians, who went into a frenzy over the ludicrously hyped "death panel" fraud used to try scuttling crucial healthcare reform, stands as one of the most egregious examples of hypocrisy in modern times.

Although definitely shocking, we shouldn't really be surprised by the barbarism that lies in the American Right's fascistic heart.

It's being done through blatant union busting, which strengthens Big Business profiteers while eliminating a key source of campaign donations for progressive office seekers.

The Republicans also use dirty tricks to shut down groups like ACORN that register constituencies most likely to vote against them.

Then there's the voter photo ID sham that requires the poor and others with likely liberal leanings to obtain very specific identification that's often difficult or costly to acquire. Since evidence shows balloting fraud is negligible, this is plainly a contrived suppression ploy, now being actively pursued in 34 states.

Finally, close elections can be stolen outright through hacked voting machines, many of which are manufactured by companies with Republican ties, such as Diebold.

It isn't just Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, public education, and organized labor that ultra conservatives seek to destroy. They clearly want to "rub out" their political opposition as well.

How any decent person could favor a party that kneels before the cross while constantly mouthing platitudes about morality -- but aggressively does everything that's evilly opposite -- is beyond comprehension.

Although it's certainly true that we have ample reason to be disappointed by Barack Obama's chronic capitulation, plus a general Democratic failure to solidly rally around correct Progressive Caucus values, let's not repeat our foolish error from a year ago.

Namely, the stay-at-home "disgust" that kept enough liberals away from the polls on election day 2010 to give the Scott Walkers of this country a free chance to start dismantling the whole New Deal legacy.

Working wickedly from within and without, Republicans are plainly demonstrating that they possess a deadly malice that belies the widespread view on the American left that there is absolutely "no difference" between our nation's two mainstream political parties.

Please don't even think of staying away from the voting booth come November of next year.

That's exactly what the reactionary bastards want us to do!

A mass turnout by good people is key to foiling well-planned Republican sabotage and suppression strategies, thereby preventing a terrible societal outcome that would brutally decimate America's wage-earning majority.

In the meantime, let's turn up the heat on both atrocious Republicans and weak Democrats through a militant expansion of large protests like those already so inspiringly seen in Wisconsin and Ohio.

The current effort by activists to transform Wall Street into an American version of Cairo's Tahrir Square should serve as a model.

Our voices must be heard.

Let's not make the mistake of being complicit in what amounts to a monstrously immoral GOP plot to murder participatory democracy itself.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

Catherine, what a great post. I have to copy it and send it to someone who has maintained he will not vote again since his vote means nothing. I understand being depressed about our politics, but I don't believe in committing suicide.

Uh, dear dori and AOM...I wish I could take credit for having composed the marvelous post you're patting me on the back for...I did not write it...I just found it and thought it was marvelous....wish I had the brains to write something like that, but I don't!

However, I completely agree with everything in it. The author is actually DENNIS RAHKONEN and he writes a blog at the Smirking Chimp... , the site where dori and I first encountered each other!

Dori, please use it in anyway you think will best benefit, and I'm sure you will give all the credit to Mr. Dennis Rahkonen as the original author.

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman

I am on so rarely now I never even thought of SmirkingChimp before you possted this. Thank you for your post. I will send the article and the SC address for my friend.

Meanwhile, what can be done about the Rs who are dead set to destroy the Postal System? My postal worker and the one where I get stamps are livid! Privatizing the system so their pals can make a fortune while more people are unemployed.

I think the USPS is one of their first victims, dori...and read on if you really want to be frightened. Pass along this excellent commentary to one and all....it's also at the Smirking Chimp. IMO, the KOCH BROTHERS are our nation's greatest enemy!

Last week, Yasha Levine and I broke our Nation magazine story on The Dylan Ratigan Show exposing free-market hypocrisy by Charles Koch and Austrian economist Friedrich von Hayek on a scale so grotesque it was hard to know whether to laugh or scream, or both. A brief recap: We revealed letters from the early-mid 1970s in which Charles Koch– the biggest funder of a four-decade-long campaign to destroy Social Security and Medicare–privately championed Social Security and Medicare in order to lure Hayek out of Austria (where he enjoyed universal health care) and into America, so that Hayek could front for Koch's war on entitlements. Hayek was more than happy to oblige Koch, except for one problem: Hayek was privately afraid of America's free-market health care system, so afraid that he initially turned Koch's offer down. But as Charles Koch was to find out, Hayek was a fellow traveler in free-market hypocrisy: Back in the 1950's, while Hayek was at the University of Chicago, the Austrian-born economist had secretly and voluntarily opted into the Social Security program, and continued paying in for 40 quarters--qualifying Hayek for Medicare and Social Security, just in time for Charles Koch's invitation. That was great news for all, because it meant Hayek could come out and help Koch destroy Social Security and Medicare while simultaneously living off those same programs, and not worry about falling through the brutal free-market "safety net" that Hayek privately feared.

MORE AT THE LINK. THE REPORT IS LONG, BUT WELL WORTH THE TIME IT TAKES TO READ AND TRY TO OVERCOME THE SHOCK AND AWE YOU WILL FEEL AFTER HAVING DONE SO!

_________________

"Behind every great fortune lies a great crime."Honore de Balzac

"Democrats work to help people who need help. That other party, they work for people who don't need help. That's all there is to it."~Harry S. Truman